


Team-building Activities

by menecio



Category: Naruto
Genre: Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Anbu Yamato | Tenzou, Blanket Permission, Discord: Kakashi Lounge, Gen, Humor, Teambuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28268715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/menecio/pseuds/menecio
Summary: “Senpai. It’s a splinter.”
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Yamato | Tenzou
Comments: 16
Kudos: 63





	Team-building Activities

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaiba](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiba/gifts).



> I hope you like it, ZuZu!!! 😊💖✨
> 
> Many thanks to [booleanWildcard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/booleanWildcard), [HazelBeka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazelbeka), and [stupidbadgers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidbadgers) for being wonderful betas! 😚💖

Just as Tenzō finishes dispatching their last enemy, Kakashi yelps, “I’m hit!”

The tone suggests humour, but the little screech sounds honest enough. Tenzō turns his gnarled spear-ended branches back into a normal human arm, then jogs up to Kakashi—the older agent is in a heap on the ground, writhing and moaning as he clutches his right hand.

“Senpai,” Tenzō says, kneeling down next to him. “Let me see.”

Kakashi, contrary to his usual attitude, offers his hand readily enough. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Tenzō grabs the proffered appendage, gently turns it so it’s palm-up, and discovers the source of Kakashi’s insurmountable pain.

“A splinter?” he wonders aloud.

“Oh, it’s so painful, I can’t take it,” Kakashi says, squirming further, his ANBU mask slipping off with his theatrics. It lands on the forest floor with a small thud. “Tell my ninken I love them.”

“This is one of mine,” Tenzō continues, ignoring Kakashi. He lifts his own mask out of the way, puzzled by what his eyes are seeing. “Why did it hit you? It shouldn’t have.”

It’s true that Tenzō’s thorn volley technique is still in need of some adjustments, but he would never have used it during a mission if he weren’t sure that he could do so without hurting one of his comrades. The problem with the jutsu lies not in whether it can hit the intended target, but rather in how precisely it can do so.

In any case, Kakashi should be more than capable of dodging any stray splinters.

“Senpai,” Tenzō squints down at him, “did you get hit on purpose?”

“What? Me? On purpose?” Kakashi gives him an outraged look, which means he’s lying. “I’m in pure agony here, and you have the gall to accuse me of—oh, I’m dizzy. It’s all the blood loss. Tell Gai he can have my books.”

“I doubt Gai wants your filth on his bookshelf, senpai,” Tenzō says.

“ _Icha Icha_ is a masterp—” Kakashi jerks his hand back. “What are you doing?”

“Removing the splinter,” Tenzō says, his own hands still poised to pluck the splinter out.

“What? No. I’ll bleed out for sure.”

Tenzō tries very hard not to roll his eyes. “Senpai. It’s a splinter.”

“It’s _huge_.” Kakashi says, gesturing at it with his other hand for what Tenzō considers to be an unnecessary amount of emphasis. “It’s the size of my thumb. It’ll leave a crater behind!”

“You’ll live,” Tenzō says. “Give me your hand.”

Kakashi lets his head fall back against the soft grass and lets out a groaning sort of wail. Tenzō frowns at him.

“Senpai, stop being a baby.”

“It hurts!”

“Then you shouldn’t have gotten in the splinter’s damn way,” Tenzō snaps. He doesn’t pout, but he knows Kakashi would call what his face is doing right now pouting. “Why did you do it? Is this some sort of trick to test my loyalty?”

“No, I trust you,” Kakashi says with perfect clarity, then goes back to whining. “But your aim sucks.”

“My aim does not—”

They both still as they sense two shinobi approaching. After a moment, their way of moving registers as familiar, and Tenzō relaxes just a second after Kakashi, both having automatically grabbed and donned their masks again.

Two ANBU Konoha-nin fade into view from amidst the trees, looking no worse for wear than Tenzō and Kakashi.

“Ladies,” Kakashi greets. “All in order?”

“We bring the bacon,” Ant says, holding up the scroll they’d been after. The blood splatters on it are still fresh. “One of the missing-nin had a nasty earth jutsu that you might’ve wanted to—what the hell is up with your hand.”

“Tenzō hit me,” Kakashi says, and though his face is hidden once more, the dejection in his tone is impossible to ignore.

Tenzō blushes, to his eternal mortification (even though no one can see it), the red flush a mix of nerves and anger. It isn’t that he cares what they think, but he’s still a stranger in a strange land in many ways, and he’s trying to earn his new teammates’ trust—not all of them are as quick to accept him as Kakashi and Itachi were—so he doesn’t want Kakashi undoing all his hard work with a careless comment.

“I did _not.”_

“Yeah, Tenzō wouldn’t miss a target in his sleep,” Hedgehog says, crossing her arms. The way she agrees with him almost without thinking makes Tenzō feel more confident about his standing within Team Ro. “Did you get hit on purpose, Captain?”

“Why does everyone keep asking that?” Kakashi pulls out the splinter, not even flinching, and holds it up as though it were an incriminating piece of evidence. “Look at this thing. Look at the size. I’m not a masochist.”

He flicks the splinter away, looking extremely apathetic about the whole thing.

Ant and Hedgehog chuckle and shake their heads at him.

“He does this, you know,” Ant tells Tenzō, jerking her chin at Kakashi. “Throws himself in the way of new members’ techniques so he can gauge them better—or at least he says he can gauge them better when he does that.”

“Oh, well then, if he says it,” Tenzō mutters, prompting Ant and Hedgehog to laugh again.

“All right, that’s enough disrespecting-your-captain time,” Kakashi says, then gestures for Ant to give him the scroll. “Give that here, please.”

She does, and he slings the scroll across his back for their return trip to Konoha, his tantō relocated to his left hip. He tugs to make sure it’s safely in place, then nods when the rope doesn’t give more than the minimum necessary to allow him to move comfortably.

“Are you going to bandage that?” Hedgehog asks.

She points at Kakashi’s hand. It’s bleeding, though not profusely—his tactical gloves caught most of the brunt. Kakashi holds up his hand and flexes his fingers, as though trying to decide if it’s worth the bother. In the end, he makes a noncommittal sound and shrugs.

“It’s fine,” he says. “Let’s get going.”

They begin their journey back east, to the verdant forests and rolling hills they call home. Hedgehog pats Tenzō on the shoulder as she moves past him—taking point, her usual position—and the unexpectedness of such casual camaraderie almost makes Tenzō slip off the branch he’s just jumped onto. He regains his balance before he even really loses it, but he disguises any potential clumsiness by flicking a strand of hair over his shoulder.

He notices Kakashi’s head turned to him then, but before he can be certain of it, the older ninja is back to looking straight ahead as they dash through the twigs and the leaves. His right hand is closed into a fist to keep it from dripping any stray drops of red.

Kakashi should have dodged that, but he didn’t. He could have removed the splinter and bandaged the wound quietly, but he made a scene. He might have planned it all along, but he certainly wouldn’t say if asked. The result is still the same: Tenzō’s bonding, if only a little, with two ANBU teammates over their captain’s silly antics.

The ex-Root agent smiles behind his mask. He hopes his senpai’s hand heals well.


End file.
